1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related in general to pocket or purse organizers and, in particular, to a device that organizes, stores, and protects wallet-sized cards, such as those containing credit or identification information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inside a typical wallet or purse, one is likely to find a half-dozen or more cards such as license, credit, check, ATM, and membership cards, amongst others. The usual dimensions of these cards is approximately 8.5 cm in length by 5.5 cm in width and 1 mm or less in thickness. The storing, organizing, and retrieving of wallet-size cards has led to a need for compact, yet efficient, holders.
Standard wallets or purses may contain pockets or inserts of clear plastic envelopes that serve to store or organize cards. However, such features are not ideal for several reasons. First, cards can be difficult to retrieve from, or place into, deep pockets or plastic envelopes. Second, the space available for individual cards frequently is filled to capacity, requiring the storage of a stack of multiple cards in a single pocket or envelope. Thus, retrieval of a particular card is hampered because all cards in a stack must be at least partially removed or displaced during sorting. Moreover, cards can fall out of a purse or wallet pocket, or be fumbled and dropped while one is sorting through a stack to find a particular card.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,698 entitled “Credit and Identification Card Holder,” issued to Holdener, describes a case for storing wallet-size cards. Each card is located on its own sliding drawer that can be individually advanced and removed from the case. The sliding drawer holds a card in place through the use of stops disposed at the ends of the drawer. In this manner, a card is prevented from falling out.
However, the requirement for the sliding drawer parts of Holdener necessarily augments the thickness of the card holder. Such extra thickness is a problem, in that it is undesirable for a pocket-size card holder to have more bulk than is needed to store the cards. Accordingly, as highlighted in the last paragraph before the claims of the Holdener patent, the sliding drawer design can result in a card holder that is very awkward to handle if made to accommodate more than 6 cards. Moreover, if the required sliding drawer parts become lost or broken, holder's device would suffer from diminished capacity or be practically unusable.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,627 by Tiscione et al. discloses a three-dimensional case that contains an interior cavity defined by a top piece and a bottom piece connected by two side walls and a rear wall, with an opening at one end of the case. Cards are inserted through the opening into one of several parallel slots disposed in each side wall of the case until they are frictionally engaged and flush with an ejection tab assembly located at the rear wall of the case. This design allows a card to be individually displaced by a particular tab assembly, which is linked to an actuator button located on the exterior of the case.
While Tiscione's case is suitable for its intended purpose, it must either be made wider to accommodate a greater number of ejection tab assemblies that would be needed for more than six cards or much thicker to accommodate extra card capacity as is illustrated by the “back-to-back” embodiment shown in FIG. 7 of the patent.
Thus, there continues to be a need in the art for a card holder that stores, organizes, protects, and allows easy retrieval of a large number of individual cards in a more compactly-designed case, then has heretofore been known.